This Friday, October 24th, at 4:30pm, in Weinstein Auditorium, there will be a discussion with Jacqui Patterson, the director of the Climate and Environment Justice Program at the NAACP. (Click here to access the facebook event!) She will be talking about the disproportionate destructive impact that the fossil fuel industry has on people of color. Climate justice and racial justice are inextricably linked, and both are issues that the Smith community needs to address. This talk will discuss the commonalities of the racial justice and climate justice movements, and highlight Smith’s unique and important role in each of them.

Come kick off Parents’ Weekend with us!
Open to the 5-College community and the public.

This event is co-hosted by Divest Smith College and Smith College Green Team.

Today, September 8, President McCartney announced via an e-mail to all of Smith College that the investment committee of the Board of Trustees has unanimously approved $1 million to be invested in a sustainable global equities fund managed by Investure, the firm that oversees Smith’s endowment investments. The following is the exact text of the e-mail received by the Smith Community this morning from the Office of the President:

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff:

Over the course of the 2013-14 academic year, Smith students, faculty and staff engaged
in a series of campus conversations in relation to the worldwide campaign to divest
campuses, communities, and institutions from fossil fuels. The President’s Office, the
Center for the Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability (CEEDS) and Divest Smith
College collaborated on panel discussions and educational sessions to understand the
potential benefits and tradeoffs of fossil fuels divestment.

Over the years, student leadership has been instrumental in bringing attention to the
imperatives of climate change. Last spring, student representatives of Divest Smith College
met with a group of trustees to discuss their climate action goals. They asked the Board
to consider making an endowment investment in a sustainable investment fund. We are
proud to announce that, in June, the Investment Committee of the Board unanimously
approved that request. The Board’s investment committee approved $1 million to
be invested in a sustainable global equities fund managed by Investure, the firm that
oversees Smith’s endowment investments. Today, nearly 9 percent or $150 million of the
college’s endowment portfolio is invested with managers whose decisions are guided by
environmental, social or governance (ESG) factors.

The Board’s investment decision is one in a series of commitments Smith has made in
service of a sustainable future. In 2010, Smith adopted an ambitious 20-year plan to reduce
the college’s environmental impact. Our “Sustainability and Climate Action Management
Plan” defines benchmarks the college has pledged to achieve by 2030 under the American
College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. Through the leadership of
students, faculty and staff, and with the commitment of our entire community, we are
making significant progress toward those and other sustainability goals.

As an educational institution, one of the most significant environmental impacts Smith can
have is as an innovator, leading-edge mover, and disseminator of knowledge. Our Bechtel
Environmental Classroom, completed in 2012, is one of the greenest buildings in the United
States. It is only the fifth structure in the world to complete the Living Building Challenge.
The facility, along with the Center for the Environment (CEEDS) and the newly approved
major in environmental science and policy, attest to Smith’s commitment to produce
environmentally educated leaders.

We extend this commitment to our campus operations as well. At this time, we remain
reliant on fossil fuel for heat and electricity. However, by generating these via co-
generation, we have significantly increased our energy efficiency and independence,
reducing our need to purchase electricity from the grid. We began co-generating heat and
power in 2008; in 2013, the system began year-round operation, supplying not only heat
and hot water but chilled water for air conditioning. Where we formerly purchased all of
our electricity on the open market, in 2013, we produced about 17 million kilowatt hours
(kwh) and purchased only 7 million kwh, a 70 percent reduction of purchased electricity
and an annual savings to the budget of more than $1 million.

Solar power is also contributing to our sustainability goals. In 2009, we located 30 solar
panels on the Campus Center. In 2013, we augmented this array with 1,500 additional
panels on the Indoor Track and Tennis Building and Ford Hall. Combined, these solar
panels generate electricity sufficient to power 53 average U.S. households. Each year, they
help us avoid the same amount of carbon emissions absorbed by 77 acres of forest. As an
added benefit, Smith will realize savings of $20,000 annually over the next 20 years.

Local sourcing of food is also a sustainability goal at Smith. Dining Services currently
obtains about 22 percent of its food from local, sustainable sources; with grant support
from the Kendall Foundation, they are seeking to increase their local produce, fish and
meat sources. Doing so will reduce fuel consumption as well as supporting local family
farms and producers. Since 2001, Smith’s recycling and food-waste composting programs
have cut in half the amount of solid waste we send to the landfill.

The challenges of global climate change are urgent and complex. At Smith, even as we
seek to reduce our carbon footprint, fossil energy consumption remains a significant and
undeniable fact of our operation as a residential college. But every step we take, whether
dramatic or modest, contributes to the collective motivation to address one of the most
pressing challenges of our time. We will continue to reduce our own reliance on gas and
oil, take leadership in sustainability education, advocate for economic and policy measures
that curb greenhouse gas emissions, and model solutions that contribute to a sustainable
future.

Sincerely,

Kathleen McCartney
President

Elizabeth Eveillard ’69
Chair, Smith College Board of Trustees

This decision was a direct result of student activism, and it shows the power of student engagement at Smith. While this $1 million transferred is a good first step toward greater institutional responsibility, we look forward to the continued dialogue on fossil fuel divestment.

Yesterday, the Student Government Association announced that Smith College students voted overwhelmingly in support of divestment from the fossil fuel industry. The student body believes Smith has a moral and financial responsibility to divest our endowment from the fossil fuel industry.

The vote is a great step towards institutional change. Now that this student body referendum has passed, it is critical that we keep pushing our administration and Board of Trustees to divest.

The Smith community is eager to move this conversation forward.

Please contact Divest Smith College if you would like to add your name to our list of allies and receive email updates about important campaign events.

Many of you may be aware of the Keystone XL pipeline, which, when completed, would run from Canada, through the United States, to the Gulf of Mexico. It would have devastating environmental effects while perpetuating our dependence on fossil fuels. In response to the current debate surrounding the pipeline, Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel peace laureate, calls for “an apartheid-style boycott to save the planet.” Additionally, he has publicly voiced his support for divestment from the fossil fuel industry. He states, “We cannot necessarily bankrupt the fossil fuel industry. But we can take steps to reduce its political clout, and hold those who rake in the profits accountable for cleaning up the mess.”

Archbishop Tutu then advocates for divestment as a means to that end. “Young people across the world have already begun to do something about it. The fossil fuel divestment campaign is the fastest growing corporate campaign of its kind in history.”

Below is the wording of the student body referendum on the SGA Spring Election:

YES: I, as a member of the Smith College student body, support the sentiments expressed in this letter. As stated below, I believe that Smith College has a moral and financial responsibility to divest our endowment from the fossil fuel industry. I ask that this letter be considered by the Board of Trustees.

NO: I, as a member of the Smith College student body, do not believe that Smith College has a moral and financial responsibility to divest our endowment from the fossil fuel industry.

Text of the Letter:

Dear Smith College Board of Trustees,

The extraction, transportation, and use of fossil fuels cause damage to communities around the globe, to the environment, and to the climate. For more information about the fossil fuel industry and Smith’s investments, please visit divestsmithcollege.com. Because the moral implications of remaining invested in the fossil fuel industry contradict the Smith College community’s longstanding commitment to being pioneers in social and environmental justice movements and their stated commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, it is the opinion of the student body that Smith College must take concrete steps towards divesting from the fossil fuel industry. We, the student body, request that the Smith College Board of Trustees be aware of our belief that the college has a responsibility to:

1. Freeze any new investment in fossil-fuel companies, and commit now to divest within five years from direct ownership and from any commingled funds that include fossil-fuel public equities and corporate bonds.

2. Publish an annual progress report about the exposure of Smith College’s endowment to the fossil fuel industry.

Below is the full text of an article originally published in The Sophian following the panel discussion hosted by President McCartney about Divestment.

On Monday, February 24th, concerned members of the Smith community filled the Carroll Room to discuss the relationship between the college’s endowment and the fossil fuel industry. President McCartney’s office sponsored the panel discussion in response to the growing movement on campus to divest from the fossil fuel industry. The conversation focused on the financial structure of endowments. The panelists and administrators who spoke failed to place our endowment in the context of Smith’s institutional power and failed to address the political statement we are making by investing in the fossil fuel industry.

After publicly recognizing the threat of climate change, Smith created the Sustainability and Climate Action Management Plan, which details how Smith will reach carbon neutrality by 2030, although it does not mention investments. In the past, Smith recognized the political statements made by our assets and divested from companies operating in Apartheid South Africa during the 1980s, and in Sudan in 2007. By refusing to recognize the implications of investment in the fossil fuel industry, Smith is making a statement that our institution supports the harmful practices of fossil fuel companies that result in community and environmental destruction, while simultaneously perpetuating climate change.

Divest Smith College, a network of concerned students, advocates that Smith cease investing our endowment funds in the fossil fuel industry, because Smith has the responsibility to reflect institutional values in its financial decisions. This divestment campaign is backed by strong support from the student body, a third of whom have signed a petition advocating for divestment from the fossil fuel industry.